Shelter From the Storm
by JustCharles
Summary: Challenge Prompt from Ari Oldbag Moriarty. He was in a storm. She wanted to shelter him from the storm. Based on Bob Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm" Futurefic.


**A/N: Ari Oldbag Moriarty have had some bad cases of Writer's Block lately and so we chanllenged each other to a Free-Write Prompt based on the other's favorite songs. I chose, as the title below indicates. "Shelter from the Storm by Bob Dylan. I hope you like it. Oh and please go to Arimoriarty . com or Ariellemoriarty . tumblr . com for her free-write based upon a song I suggested to her.**

" **Shelter from the Storm"**

It was the hardest rain imaginable that day. But he had kept driving through it. Driving to get away from everything. Everything that he had been.

But it was no use. The car was running out of gas. After all, he had borrowed it over a hundred miles back. Closer to 200, really. He felt stupid. The car was dying. Dying where he needed to be the least.

He then cursed as it finally breathed its last. He cursed. Oh, how he cursed the car and cursed the owner and cursed his life. Cursed a lot of things about that.

He sighed. There was a gas station nearby. Or used to be. He would walk there.

Even if it was in the rain, he would walk.

He got out, locked the door, and tossed the keys in. He didn't need the car anyway. He just needed a phone. Someone to call. Anyone. HE just wanted to get out of this area. Run as far away as he could.

As he walked, his stomach rumbled and his beard itched and his clothes were wet and…

Then he tripped in the mud. He asked aloud why God hated him. If God heard him, God was too busy laughing at him to answer.

He made his way to the Gas station…which…was…closed…down.

God must have been laughing louder. The whole area seemed deserted at night. So he decided to go somewhere else.

He couldn't risk the bus, but he needed to get as far away from the train station as possible. He decided he'd go closer to the mountains. He had heard there were some caves nearby there. It was risky, with slick rocks and maybe some animals, but it was worth a shot. At least he could get dry and warm.

He had been making his way up the road that was up a hill. He figured he had already walked about 20 minutes. Maybe thirty. He had decided that he would try to get off the road soon and onto the hill, away from any cars or buses that were foolish enough to be out here.

Indeed, the rain was pouring down as much as possible now. It was as if the clouds were being squeezed like sponges. He cursed again. This time things were getting decidedly colder too, which wasn't a surprise. This was a December storm. Not cold enough to snow, but cold enough to drop a lot of rain on him and this town.

He went to his left off of the sidewalk. He knew there would be some cars and a bus coming by.

However, the grass was slippery and he slipped and fell down.

As he was sliding down he knew he would fall into the river that was nearby. IT was inevitable.

He actually welcomed it. Everything would be over for him. He wouldn't fight anymore.

However, once he reached bottom, there was traction and friction that slowed him to a halt.

Unfortunately it stopped him in front of a car that screeched its tires.

The driver got out and said, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry!"

"You didn't hit me…" He replied. He thought about taking her car after tying her up. But there was something about her that had given him pause. So instead he decided maybe to hitchhike.

However when he looked at the woman, she was looking at him with large brown eyes. Brown eyes that spoke to his soul.

"Are you okay?" She said.

"Uhh…yeah, I'm very fine," He said. He recognized her, but from where, he wondered.

"Umm…Do you need a ride somewhere?"

He looked at her and then laughed. "No, I'm very sorry. I just need to get going on my own."

"You shouldn't walk in the wet weather," She said pointedly. It was surprising to hear such bluntness.

"I'm fine," he said.

She blew air impatiently out of her lips and said, "You're not fine! Look! Just stay over at my house for the night."

"A woman like you is trusting a guy like me?" He asked.

"Why shouldn't I? If you were a perv you would have had your way with me right now. Or tried to. I do know Karate, Kung Fu, and Hapkido."

He stared at her. "Uhh…good to know. Um…I just want to…"

"C'mon, I'll give you 'Shelter from the Storm'," she insisted.

He looked at her. She seemed very kind and he wanted to get inside and get warm.

So he said, "Okay…"

She smiled a little wider. He chuckled. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

She drove him to her house in a small neighborhood. It seemed to be on the last house on a hill.

He got out and thought it looked nice, even though it was a little old. But there was something about it…

But then it was pushed out of his mind. He just wanted to get inside.

She had taken her shoes off and he had done the same, although they were so encrusted with mud it was hard to see where leather ended and mud began.

He had started to sneeze. "Oh! I'm sorry, let me get you a towel and some dry clothes".

She had gone upstairs to get him some clothes and a towel to dry himself off with. He had looked around while she was up there. He he'd been in a house like this before. But he couldn't remember where or when.

"All right, these clothes are my cousin's but he never wears them anymore."

"Is your cousin here?"

"No…he's on his second honeymoon with his wife," She said, smile still on her face, but a little sad.

"No one else here? Parents?"

She looked down. "Mom died when I was little. Dad died of a heart attack last year."

"I'm sorry…My parents are gone too…I mean, I think they are…I'm kind of an orphan myself."

"That's sad…But I have my cousin and his wife to take care of me."

"That's good to hear. Though the probably would have kittens if they knew you were at home with a strange man."

"I'm 21 and have my teaching degree, jeez! I'm old enough to pick any guy I want!"

"Maybe they made a deathbed promise…" He looked at her. Her tantrum was cute and she looked very attractive with her brown eyes and brown hair. "You say you're a teacher?"

"Yes…I teach music to First Graders," she said.

"Really?" He asked. "And you like doing that?"

"It's fun…" she said. "Um…you're still dripping…"

"Hm?" he asked. "Oh, sorry…where's your bathroom?"

"Over there, around the corner on the left," she said.

"All right." He then went into the bathroom to change.

He looked at himself in the mirror. But he couldn't look very long. After all the things in his past that he had done, he couldn't face himself. Accept himself.

So he just hung his clothes up over the tub to dry. Unlike his shoes, his clothes had been completely cleared of mud by the rain.

He put on the clothes. They were a little big on him, but not hugely so.

He left the bathroom and went back into the living room. He noticed she was making something.

"I thought you might be hungry. So I'm making Miso soup."

"You don't have to do that," he said.

"But I want to," she replied in a voice that despite her smile brooked no argument.

"I…uh, thank you."

He sat down and watched her cook. She had hummed a tune. It sounded familiar to him. Like it was a store jingle or something like that. He looked at some pictures that were near him. "This your family?" he said.

It was a picture of a young man with silver hair, his host when she was a little girl, and a man with charcoal gray hair that he took to be her father.

"Um-hm…" She replied.

There was something about his host's younger days that were hauntingly familiar.

He put that one back and then looked at the other pictures as well. There was a picture of the same young man, slightly older and with a girl with brown hair, who was different looking than his host. More tomboyish. There was something about her…

Something about everybody… He couldn't seem to look too long at them. The boy with blond hair. The boy with black hair and glasses. The boy with short brown hair. The girl with black hair and glasses. The girl with short blue hair in the sleeveless tunic. The girl with black hair in a bun. The girl with her shoulder-length hair and sunglasses perched on her head. He couldn't face them.

He didn't know why. They all seemed familiar. But he didn't know why they seemed familiar and why he couldn't face them.

"Is there…Is there something wrong?" She asked having finished making the soup and placed it on the table in front of him.

"I…" HE felt his face and came back with wet tears on his hand. "It's just…the people in these pictures. They remind me of my childhood…"

"What happened…? I mean, you seem sad…"

He sighed. "In the arrogance of my youth I thought it'd be a very good idea to explore the world. See things I had never seen before. However, I should have stayed home. This town was my home. I know that much. But I think it's been so many years that a lot of things have changed. And what little I remember. I think all the sights of the world, all the trouble I've gotten into. I probably don't remember things correctly or at all about this place."

"Maybe you got knocked on the head a few times?" She said.

He sadly chuckled. "More than a few times."

"Maybe my cousin and his wife can help. He's in Psychology and she's police detective…"

The pit of his stomach turned cold at that last part. "Nah…I don't think we should bother them on their second honeymoon."

"It's no bother," She said. "I want to help you if you're hurting."

He ate his soup. "Maybe you shouldn't…"

"Shouldn't what?"

"Help me that much…" He replied.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because maybe neither of us would like what we find. Call it a gut instinct."

"But people should help people. Regardless of if they are a stranger."

"I don't need help," he said and started to get up. "I should get going,"

"But it's raining…"

"I don't care…" he said.

"Why are you being stubborn?"

"Because I don't want to impose. You have a life to lead."

"But you're my guest."

"Look, just tell me how to get a bus out of town…"

"Are you wanted?" She asked.

"What?" He asked nervously.

"By the police…are you wanted?"

"Well…Would I help to say I'm being framed by a business partner?"

"You have to turn yourself in then. If you're innocent…"

"You believe in me so readily."

"I see the good in people," She said. "I see it in you."

"There's no good for me anymore."

"I don't believe that."

"Look, I'm going to skip town."

"You have to go to the police!" she insisted.

"Just walk in to the police and say, 'Hey there, I'm from Osaka and I skipped out on my trial, could you please not pull out your guns, and tasers, and batons since I'm accused of a white-collar crime?' Oh and 'I'm innocent?'" He asked sarcastically.

"Look, I know you've had a bad life, out there in the world…"

He snickered, "You've got that right. See that storm out there? That's nothing compared to the real world. The real world is a storm that can swallow some people. I don't know if you've ever had plans to leave this burg…but I'm telling right now, don't. Because you'll be in a storm without shelter."

"I don't believe that," she said. "I'll go with you in the morning."

He had been heading towards the front door. He didn't need those clothes anyway. "I'm sorry…I can't do that…"

"Why not?"

"What if there is a misunderstanding? What if they shoot you?"

"I don't care! All I care is that I help you!" She said, getting in front of him.

"Why do you care so much?"

"Bear…Because a friend once told me that we should always help people that need our help the most. Even if they don't want it. Bear…because everybody has bonds to everybody else."

"Look, your friend, whoever he was, he was naïve. People don't help people. They hurt people if they get a chance. My business partner screwed me over the first chance he got and kept doing it. And then he left me with his 'bundle of joy…' His misappropriation attributed to me instead, just so he could cut a deal. And the government bought it. He took advantage of me. One day someone will take advantage of you. Maybe it'll be a boyfriend. Maybe it'll be one of your students. But it'll be someone to hurt you so much that you'll think the world and God is against you. And all you can do is wonder what it is you did wrong. Now, I'm going. I'm just leaving town."

She had been silent during his monologue. But then she said, "I'm not letting you leave."

"You can't stop me."

"You can't go…"

"I can and I will…"

"There's a storm out there.

"I know…" he said.

"It's a bad one…"

"I know…I deserve it. Let me be washed away."

"No, I'm not going to…"

""You have to…"

"No."

"You have…"

"I DON'T WANT YOU TO GO OUT THERE WHERE YOU'LL GET SICK AND DIE I WANT TO SHELTER YOU FROM THE STORM!"

And then she kissed him hard on the mouth.

He looked surprised. She had looked at him with an intense glare of angry Justice."

"There are people who care about other people," she said.

She kissed him again.

"Let the storm pass…I'll protect you from it. Shelter you from it."

She kissed him again and he returned her kiss this time.

Somehow, he felt a stirring in his heart. Something he hadn't felt in a long, long time.

As they kissed, his right hand squeezed her left hand and vice versa. Their bodies were moving closer and they could feel the heat of the passion each felt. Hers that was always there. His that was reawakened.

They kissed and moved together. Their breaths, gasps, and the rustling of their clothes were the only sound made in that living room.

…

They spent a long while together…

 _ **The Next Morning…**_

She woke up in her futon. She was alone. She wondered where her guest had gone.

She put on her Yukata and walked out of her room.

She walked out into the living room. On the table next to the pictures was a note. She picked it up and opened it.

 _Nanako,_

 _I'm very sorry for leaving you like this. But it seems I've been in a bad fog these last several years. When I lived in Inaba, I wanted to explore the world. Since everybody was moving on with their lives after a few years, I decided to go._

 _I never should have left Inaba._

 _The world is a very scary place. One where people can be hurt a lot. I know I made a promise once to you. But I think I've fulfilled that promise._

 _So it's with a very heavy heart that I leave you and your world. Please don't be angry with me or think of me as a coward. I know you will. And I feel terrible about it. But I wasn't meant to be there forever_

(The writing, which had started out professionally was now becoming more and more childish _._ )

 _I didn't remembear everything until this morning and as I'm writing this I'm feeling beary awful about what happened last night. I had a beary big crush on you when you were little, but it was wrong then and last night was more than a little wrong too._

 _If you don't wish to visit me in my TV world that's fine, just please ask Sensei and Chie-chan and Yosuke not to be mad at me. I tried to be beary good here. But I don't bearlong in your world. And my being there still will just cause a storm fur you._

 _And I need to shelter you from the storm._

 _I'm sorry, and I just wanted to say thank you for the beary nice time last night._

 _Goodbye…perhaps fur-ever…_

 _Teddie_

Nanako Dojima cried. She had loved Teddie in a little girl crush way when she was 6 and 7. She had thought he was very brave and very smart.

But now, he chose the coward's way out that didn't involve suicide.

She was so sad…

The phone rang.

She saw who it was on the Caller ID and asked, "Big Bro?"

"Nanako," Yu said. "Turn on the TV…"

"But Big Bro…Teddie was here and…" Nanako said, crying

"Just do it, Nanako!" Yu said.

When her Cousin/Big Bro told her to do something, she did it…and then was annoyed because it was like Dad.

The reporter was in front of a courthouse talking about a "Teddie Kumada" who had turned himself in to police.

She saw the man on TV. His hair was a little shorter and he had shaved. "I'm very sorry I ran away. I was scared…I will face any additional charges but I WILL prove my innocence.

Nanako was stunned. She had thought he had run away.

But then she had turned the note over onto the other side noticed that the ink color had changed.

 _I was in the TV World fur 5 minutes bearfore I got beary bored and just decided to turn myself in. It's a lot easier to be fed by the correctional officers than trying to find food in the TV World._

Nanako laughed. Chie and Yukiko had once slipped up and mentioned the TV world and the whole story a few years back. She believed, unlike her Dad.

But she also believed Teddie was a good person…even if he wasn't originally a person.

"Nanako, are you okay?"Yu asked.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine Big Bro…" Nanako then hung up the phone and sat in front of the TV.

 _P.S. I love you, Nana-chan…_ Teddie had wrote at the end.

"I love you too…beary much…" She chuckled.

"But Mr. Kumada, why turn yourself in?" A reporter asked.

Teddie looked down for a moment. He seemed to be thinking about it.

He then looked up and looked directly at the camera. "To Shelter her from the Storm."

 _A/N: Yeah, I know. The Dylan song didn't end like this, but this is Persona 4's world and we have to be uplifting. No Bad Ends here. I also wanted to explore as I was writing this, Teddie all growed up and Nanako being an adult and both being paired romantically. I apologize if it turned out to not be your cup of tea._


End file.
